LA area gets new phone area code.

[desertrunner]

Why I cringe every time this happens- About 10-15 years ago, I read some random guy online say the area code nightmare is an easy fix, just make the phone numbers EIGHT digits instead of seven. Now you can had thousands of new phone numbers and keep the original 0 and 1 area codes like- 213, 818, 714, 619, 805, etc. And the guy was right, I much rather remember just 1 more number than an additional three.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles' newest area code officially has a debut date.

Starting Nov. 1, 2024, those who have a 213 or 323 area code could be assigned a number in the new 738 area code, under certain circumstances.

Who is affected?

Anyone with a 213/323 area code telephone number will be affected.

Area code 213/323 currently covers downtown Los Angeles, Alhambra, Bell, Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Commerce, Cudahy, Glendale, Hawthorne, Huntington Park, Inglewood, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Rosemead, South Gate, South Pasadena, Vernon, West Hollywood, and unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County.

The new 738 area code will serve the same geographic area currently served by the 213 and 323 area codes.

Customers may be assigned a number in the new 738 area code when they request a new service or an additional line.
Why is there a new area code?

On August 22, 2022, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) filed Application (A.) 22-08-009 on behalf of the telecommunications industry, requesting that the CPUC approve an overlay area code in the 213/323 area code region to provide additional numbering resources in the region.

And the Fresno area will get a new area code as well next year-

Starting March 26, 2025, the 357 area code will be added as an overlay to the 559 area code. This will require a new dialing procedure for both 559 and 357 area code numbers. To make a call from a landline phone, you'll need to dial 1 + area code + phone number. For calls from a mobile phone, you can dial area code + phone number or 1 + area code + phone number.

[lol wow]

still on my 818 shit

[lol wow]

if were gonna deep dive this 747 is an absolute trash area code my dad got a new cell phone they gave him that i debated even saving his number

[desertrunner]

if were gonna deep dive this 747 is an absolute trash area code my dad got a new cell phone they gave him that i debated even saving his number

I dont know anything about the 747, nor is it in this article. You might want to expand.

[lol wow]

shutup nerd

[gut]

I feel like adding an extra number to American phones would create a Y2K level panic, while adding an area code is easy as fuck.

Also, no one remembers phone numbers anymore. If I hadn't had the same number for 20 years i would forget mine.

[desertrunner]

I feel like adding an extra number to American phones would create a Y2K level panic, while adding an area code is easy as fuck.

Also, no one remembers phone numbers anymore. If I hadn't had the same number for 20 years i would forget mine.

Remembering and using 1 more number is much easier than the 3 new ones that keep coming out. I would much rather see California be dedicated to 213, 818, 714, 619 and 909 all over again instead of the additional 951, 949, 858, 840, 442, 562, 760, 442, 626, etc.

Keep the OG 1' and 0's.

[1dollarboxcar]

all the Illegals get free Gubment phones... thus needing more area codes... Kamalism...

[Walter Sobchak]

Why I cringe every time this happens- About 10-15 years ago, I read some random guy online say the area code nightmare is an easy fix, just make the phone numbers EIGHT digits instead of seven. Now you can had thousands of new phone numbers and keep the original 0 and 1 area codes like- 213, 818, 714, 619, 805, etc. And the guy was right, I much rather remember just 1 more number than an additional three.

When the NANP was figuring out how to create new phone numbers in the late 80s and early 90s they did consider doing basically the same thing, but making the area codes 4 digits so all area codes would still have 0 or 1 as their second digit. So LA would have been split into 2130-2139, etc. This would have required fewer changes to phone companies’ billing systems. Remember in those days it was all land lines and it cost money to call long distance.

There were two main problems with this. The first was that it created fewer new numbers than changing area codes to allow any second digit (which also freed up central exchanges, the first 3 digits in a phone number, to have a second digit of 0 or 1, which they previously could not). The second, and much bigger problem, was that in those days almost all phone companies still had electromechanical switching equipment, which was built for the 3-3-4 digit format and couldn’t be changed to accommodate a total of 11 rather than 10 digits. With today’s equipment it could have been done more easily. Hence the decision to go with lots of strange area codes.

What I don’t like is when they put two area codes starting with the same digit, or that only differ by one digit, overlaying the same area.

[Dan Druff]

Why I cringe every time this happens- About 10-15 years ago, I read some random guy online say the area code nightmare is an easy fix, just make the phone numbers EIGHT digits instead of seven. Now you can had thousands of new phone numbers and keep the original 0 and 1 area codes like- 213, 818, 714, 619, 805, etc. And the guy was right, I much rather remember just 1 more number than an additional three.

When the NANP was figuring out how to create new phone numbers in the late 80s and early 90s they did consider doing basically the same thing, but making the area codes 4 digits so all area codes would still have 0 or 1 as their second digit. So LA would have been split into 2130-2139, etc. This would have required fewer changes to phone companies’ billing systems. Remember in those days it was all land lines and it cost money to call long distance.

There were two main problems with this. The first was that it created fewer new numbers than changing area codes to allow any second digit (which also freed up central exchanges, the first 3 digits in a phone number, to have a second digit of 0 or 1, which they previously could not). The second, and much bigger problem, was that in those days almost all phone companies still had electromechanical switching equipment, which was built for the 3-3-4 digit format and couldn’t be changed to accommodate a total of 11 rather than 10 digits. With today’s equipment it could have been done more easily. Hence the decision to go with lots of strange area codes.

What I don’t like is when they put two area codes starting with the same digit, or that only differ by one digit, overlaying the same area.

Very impressed, Walter!

I had no idea you had such old school phone system knowledge. I was about to post something very similar.

People think I'm crazy when I tell them that all area codes were previously required to have a 0 or 1 as its second digit (and the first digit had to be 2-9). The latter is still a requirement -- all area codes must begin with 2-9. However, as you said, they relaxed the second digit requirement, and that can be anything.

Also, for awhile you could not have a prefix (the first 3 of the 7 digit number) have a 0 or 1 for either the first or second digit. This was for two reasons. First, at the time, prefixes were using the first two numbers to represent two letters, which would then represent a word, to be part of the number. For example, the longtime numbers starting with "46" in Hollywood spelled "HO" on the phone, so if your number was 463-4930, you'd say, "Call me at HOllywood-34930." Since the 0 and 1 did not have any corresponding letters, they couldn't be used. However, the main reason for disallowing this was central office equipment was programmed to see a 0 or 1 as the second digit being an area code, and anything else as the second digit as being a regular 7-digit number. So if you're in New York, dialing 213-463-4930 would be seen as a long distance call to Los Angeles, whereas 223-4634 would be seen as a local call within New York, and it would automatically complete and not wait for 3 more digits.

Both of these requirements had to be relaxed due to numbers running out. The "no 0 or 1 in the second digit of the prefix" was changed in the early-mid 70s in most places, and the "must be 0 or 1 in the area code" was changed in 1995, to allow for all the new area codes.

I have had a lot of vanity numbers throughout my life -- numbers which are easy to remember. These are not as cool anymore, as people tend to just take your number, store it in their phone, and never memorize it. However, I still like having them. I got my first vanity number at age 17, which ended in "7777", and in fact made the LA Times due to a confusing full page ad where an investment firm accidentally published my number as theirs. In that story, I put a prank message on my answering machine and stated that, "We've taken all the money and moved to South America, sorry for the inconvenience." After I moved out of my parents' house to go to college, and then lived on my own after that, I acquired various other numbers which ended in 7777, 8888, and 9999. These were hard to get, as they were in high demand, so I had to pull off various (legal) shenanigans to get them. In one case I got my 7777 number by talking a phone company employee into forcing the number through, despite errors when it was attempted. It turned out this was a reserved block of 1000 numbers for a PBX system. The phone company attempted to take it back from me, stating that it broke the entire block, and the other 999 numbers would have to go unused. I asserted that they had no right to do this, and claimed I would sue them for taking it away (which was an idle threat). Eventually they backed down and let me keep it. Back in those days, having a number like that actually impressed some girls, as strange as that sounds today.

With all of that said, I agree with the sentiment here that I hate overlay area codes. This is because, like most people here, I am from a time when area codes represented where you lived, and overlays basically represent nothing. Locals tend to not know the overlay well, and when they do, they have a disdain for such numbers. People from outside the area have no clue where the overlay connects to. For example, nearly everyone knows that "213" is Los Angeles, "212" is New York, "312" is Chicago, and then there's a lot of other known-but-not-as-famous area codes like Las Vegas' 702. But area codes like 738, 424, 747, etc, mean nothing to the average person.

Prior to overlaying, area codes were split. The current 213 area code in Los Angeles was for the entire southern portion of California, as well as an eastern strip of the state stretching farther north than Mammoth. Eventually it split to 714 (Orange County and San Diego) and 805 (Ventura County, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield), with 213 remaining for most of the LA area. Then 213 split into 818, where 818 was the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Then these area codes kept splitting, eventually creating 310, 323, 909, 951, 562, 626, 949, 661, and 760. These were all distinctive areas, not overlays. However, now they're just overlaying them, and not splitting anymore, meaning nobody's area code changes. 213 is now a tiny portion of Los Angeles, in and near downtown.

[desertrunner]

Druff is King of the phones.

[Dan Druff]

Druff is King of the phones.

Fact check: TRUE




Picture from 1977.